Today, the British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, opened a new reconciliation centre in Matara, southern Sri Lanka, funded by the UK. The centre is run by Sri Lanka Unites (SLU) – a youth movement which helps young people lead the way in consolidating peace in Sri Lanka. The organisation says, it has over 15,000 members from over 100 schools across Sri Lanka. Some volunteers are from local and international universities and there are chapters established in the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States.

P Nedumaran, president of Ulaga Thamizhar Peramaippu announced that the police and highways department officials demolished the compound wall of the Mullivaikkal Memorial (Mullivaikkal Ninaivu Mutram) in the early hours of this morning. He said,
“The police came to the memorial armed with bulldozers and fenced the memorial area which contained the park and lawns with wire mesh. They also installed two boards stating the area belonged to Highways department and later started demolishing it”.